When He's Tired, He Forgets To Be Misleading

The Washington Post interviews Bush.

"The Post: Will you talk to Senate Democrats about your privatization plan?

THE PRESIDENT: You mean, the personal savings accounts?

The Post: Yes, exactly. Scott has been --

THE PRESIDENT: We don't want to be editorializing, at least in the questions.

The Post: You used partial privatization yourself last year, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes?

The Post: Yes, three times in one sentence. We had to figure this out, because we're in an argument with the RNC [Republican National Committee] about how we should actually word this. [Post staff writer] Mike Allen, the industrious Mike Allen, found it.

THE PRESIDENT: Allen did what now?

The Post: You used partial privatization.

THE PRESIDENT: I did, personally?

The Post: Right.

THE PRESIDENT: When?

The Post: To describe it.

THE PRESIDENT: When, when was it?

The Post: Mike said it was right around the election.

THE PRESIDENT: Seriously?

The Post: It was right around the election. We'll send it over.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm surprised. Maybe I did. It's amazing what happens when you're tired. Anyway, your question was? I'm sorry for interrupting. "

Quite an amazing exchange.

I think this commentator at The Politcal Animal put it pretty well:
"Bush is a moron. Sure, he wasn't really confused by this. The Bushies called it "privatization" until they realized that it didn't poll well, and then they changed the name. His problem wasn't that he was confused, his problem was that he's an idiot who didn't know how to fix his own mistake. SNL had it right last night. Had Clinton been caught changing terms in such a matter, he would have quickly bailed himself out in way a much less obvious manner. And he sure as hell wouldn't have pretended that he didn't know what they were talking about. It doesn't take a lot of brains to lie, but you certainly have to be clever when you're caught lying. And Bush is not a clever man, so he shouldn't try to be one.

Another part of Bush's moronity was that he was trying to accuse the reporters of something in the first place. He's so wrapped up into his own hubris that he screwed himself up by pretending that it was never his word. The reporter was clearly going to change his terminology until Bush tried rubbing his face in it. And then the reporter wouldn't let it drop and brought up that they weren't being fooled by Bush. What a moron. He should have let the matter drop, rather than drawing attention to it.

Another of Bush's problems here was that he's overly competitive and sees a competition between him and the media; with them trying to trick him into saying things while he tries to avoid the traps and stays on-topic. And that certainly is what's happening. But he makes it so OBVIOUS that this is what he's doing. He openly says it repeatedly, with stuff like "Nice try, but it didn't work", or "trying to trip me up again, eh". Sure, reporters always try to get their interviewees to say more than the interviewee wants to, but you're not supposed to make that the point of discussion. Any intelligent person knows how to deal with that, without outright saying that everything's a trick question. He's such a damn boob it's frightening.
Posted by: Doctor Biobrain"